{"id":33873,"date":"2021-09-09T14:08:32","date_gmt":"2021-09-09T14:08:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/?post_type=articles&p=33873"},"modified":"2021-09-09T14:08:32","modified_gmt":"2021-09-09T14:08:32","slug":"strong-suit-steven-kolb","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/strong-suit-steven-kolb\/","title":{"rendered":"Strong Suit: Steven Kolb Is Not Your Typical CEO"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Steven Kolb (Credit: BFA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

OK. Let\u2019s get something straight, Google search results. Steven Kolb\u2014the CEO of the CFDA (Council of Fashion Designers of America)\u2014was not born in Belgium as you keep insisting he was. Diane von Furstenberg, who was the board chair of CFDA before handing over the reins to Tom Ford a couple of years ago, was born there. Steven and DVF worked closely for many years, but Kolb was born in New Jersey and grew up in Bergen County. So one more time: Bergen, not Belgium.<\/p>\n

Kolb laughs when talking about the vagaries of Google and his own lack of tech savvy to figure out how to correct it but the laughter softens when I question him about his growing up over in Jersey. He becomes contemplative, which is one of the characteristics that have stood him in such good stead for 15 years in his job at CFDA, an organization that represents 477 designers and brands. It\u2019s not only a trade organization, but also a philanthropic one that focuses on\u2014among other things\u2014health initiatives, disaster relief, and social causes. Commerce and kindness could be its watchwords.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a sharp balance there that inherently must be manifested in the sharp and balanced person who runs it. I ask Kolb if he were the type of, well, contemplative little Jersey boy who dreamt about running a nonprofit when he grew up.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d he says, a soft chuckle now playing chase with his memory of himself as a child. \u201cI think for me growing up as a boy in New Jersey, the interesting thing is that we were close to New York City but as a family didn\u2019t spend a lot of time coming into New York. My parents didn\u2019t have a comfort level with it. The only time I really remember going in was for my sister\u2019s birthday and we went to Chinatown for Chinese food and then to see the Harlem Globetrotters at Madison Square Garden. I just remember my mom and dad on the subway from one to the other being very uptight.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t until college when I majored in communications that I started to spend time in the city,\u201d he explains. \u201cBut what I knew is that I didn\u2019t want to work in corporate America because that to me was a scary kind of Big Brother thing. And being a gay man, I didn\u2019t feel an affinity for what I imagined the corporate C-suite guy is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead, Kolb volunteered at a crisis intervention hotline and learned about \u201cactive listening,\u201d he tells me. He also spent time as a volunteer for VISTA, the AmeriCorps program. His first job out of college was with the American Cancer Society back in Jersey, which was followed by a move to New York and a stint as a director of DIFFA (Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS). He then was recruited for the CFDA job after just one year as the founding executive director of MTV\u2019s Staying Alive Foundation, where he established an international grant-making program for HIV\/AIDS prevention and education for youth.<\/p>\n

All of these jobs seem to be suffused with a call to serve. Is that, in fact, what inspires him? \u201cOne hundred percent,\u201d he says. \u201cAlso, I think I\u2019m incredibly shy in a lot of situations, so when you\u2019re in a caring or nurturing situation or being of service then there is intention in why you\u2019re in the relationship. You\u2019re bringing something to that relationship other than just who you are as a person.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Credit: Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Kolb insists that he didn\u2019t know a lot about fashion when he was hired to run CFDA\u2014although he did wear rag & bone to his wedding back in 2012 to his husband, Jay Inkpen, who wore J.Crew. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t why I got hired,\u201d he says. \u201cI got hired because I had not-for-profit management and fund-raising experience. I had to learn all the fashion stuff. And I found out that the people that I met were the most generous in terms of patience and knowledge.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew Ralphdonnacalvin,\u201d he says, mentioning Lauren and Karan and Klein as if they had one branded first name. I asked him if Diane Von Furstenberg mentored him in that regard. \u201cI don\u2019t know if I\u2019d say that Diane was a mentor. She was more of a friend in a way,\u201d he muses. \u201cBut she really helped me because she was my first board chair. She really was instrumental in me figuring it out. And just being there. And that translated not just professionally, but personally. You know her. You know how she is. She was the board chair for 13 years. She\u2019d always say, \u2018Oh, just one more year,\u2019 with the flip of the hair and the whole thing. She\u2019s incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the years passed, he and DVF grew the organization globally and put it on a sounder financial footing. \u201cWe took on lobbying in Washington for copyright protection to buying the Fashion Calendar from Ruth Finley and taking over the scheduling of New York Fashion Week,\u201d Kolb continued. \u201cDiane is very instinctive. She just knows right away. She\u2019s very forthcoming. I think that really benefited the growth of the organization. Then she had the DVF Awards and other things, so it got to the point where it was time for her to step down. And also change is good, organizational change is good. That\u2019s when Tom came on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ford joined Kolb at the helm in March 2019 and just renewed for his third year. \u201cI don\u2019t think he\u2019ll go for 13, though,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

When I emailed DVF to ask her about Kolb, it took her less than a minute to respond. \u201cSteven and I had the most wonderful ride at CFDA for 13 years!\u201d she immediately wrote back. \u201cI turned it into a family and he made it a business. Steven is smart, honest, and unusually humble in a world of egos. I love him, respect him, and admire him.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, what\u2019s the difference between DVF and Tom Ford as board chairs? Kolb chuckles again, but this time it seems he\u2019s chasing some carefully chosen words before he decides to just, yes, cut to the chase itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cDiane sleeps with her iPad,\u201d he says. \u201cShe is intuitive. She\u2019s an immediate \u2018Yes!\u2019 There is just this energy and rapport. Tom\u2019s more measured. He\u2019s thoughtful. He takes his time. He sort of comes from a more deliberate process where her process and success comes from that immediacy of hers. That\u2019s the big difference between the two of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, there are some similarities. \u201cThey\u2019re both incredibly hands-on. There\u2019s a high level of trust that she had with me and he has with me, but at the end of the day they are creatives, so they want to know what the invitation color is and what the stock of the paper is,\u201d Kolb says. \u201cWe don\u2019t do anything creative unless Tom signs off on it. It was the same with Diane. I guess the biggest difference finally\u2014it\u2019s kind of funny\u2014is that she\u2019s all about color, so she\u2019d always be, \u2018Color! Color! Color!\u2019 And he\u2019s all about black and white\u2014with maybe just a little room for color. But they both take it very seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Ford, though, there have been new and unexpected challenges that even the canniest business consultant didn\u2019t see coming. \u201cYou have to remember that Tom took the job right before the pandemic, so he had no idea what we were going to be facing. So not only did he have to manage his own business, but also help manage CFDA as we were managing bigger issues for the industry and support for our members,\u201d says Kolb. \u201cAnd he did a great job on that.\u201d<\/p>\n

For a guy who only knew \u201cRalphdonnacalvin,\u201d it\u2019s been quite a journey to \u201cDianetomsteven.\u201d That little boy from Jersey might have only been to Manhattan once, but for the man he became it was the place where he finally arrived and is with that well-honed sense of service now helping others\u2014emerging designers, the underrepresented\u2014do the same.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29575,"featured_media":33874,"template":"","format":"standard","categories":[38,16],"yoast_head":"\nStrong Suit: Steven Kolb - GRAZIA USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"OK. Let\u2019s get something straight, Google search results. Steven Kolb\u2014the CEO of the CFDA (Council of Fashion Designers of America)\u2014was not born in Belgium as you keep insisting he was. 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